Aliens Love Underpants

The aliens arrive on earth set on finding themselves some underpants and, to the delight of these ‘pantomaniacs’, earthling pants come in all manner of colours, shapes and sizes. What’s more those humans have the habit of displaying said pants on lines for all and sundry to see and – well they’re just the thing for a spot of alien athletics.

Told in rhyme, this tale zings along zanily, though one needs to be an accomplished reader aloud to maintain the rhythm throughout. For some strange reason, perhaps best known to aliens, the mere mention of underpants is enough to send your average four- or five-year-old into fits of giggles. Small wonder then, that this book in its original format, has already become a bestseller. I wonder though, about the appropriateness of board book format; one surely needs to be out of nappies to get the most from this book. I for one would far rather have seen a big book edition so that larger groups of children can, en masse, delight in the delicious details in Ben Cort’s riotous illustrations which further illuminate Claire Freedman’s verses. A winning combination if ever there was one.